In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdon Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdon — who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family — responded spectacularly by way of the letter seen below (a letter which, according to newspapers at the time, he dictated).

Rather than quote the numerous highlights in this letter, I’ll simply leave you to enjoy it. Do make sure you read to the end.

(Source: The Freedmen’s Book; Image: A group of escaped slaves in Virginia in 1862, courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

When Drake used a midnight-hour drunk-dial from a female friend as the foundation for his single “Marvin’s Room,” the bitter torch song became an instant hit when it trended on Twitter, sparked numerous covers and racked up millions of views on YouTube. But now the song is at the center of a new lawsuit targeting the Canadian rapper-singer.

Ericka Lee — who claims she had a romantic and business relationship with Drizzy -– filed a lawsuit in California’s federal court on Thursday alleging she was the voice on the phone that was used for the track.

Lee is suing Drizzy for excluding her from sharing any co-writer royalties on the single. She claims their partnership (both business and pleasure) lasted from early 2010 to mid-2011, during which they supposedly traded poems, song lyrics and discussed creative projects.

Willow Smith had everyone whipping their hair to her 2010 hit single, but she’s on to the next. The pint-sized trendsetter, known for her wild style, made another bold image change, trading her long locks for a shaved head. Willow, whose Roc Nation debut Knees and Elbows is due this spring, once again proves she is not your average 11-year-old. Will her young fans follow suit?

Iggy Azalea dropped her first mixtape Ignorant Art in September, followed by the memorable videos for “P—-” and “My World,” which caught the attention of honchos like Jimmy Iovine. In January she inked an official deal with Interscope Records and now the 21-year-old rapper will spend the month of February recording, in hopes of dropping her debut album The New Classic by June. She hasn’t locked down a production team just yet, but Azalea tells MTV News that T.I. will serve as executive producer for the album.

“T.I.’s gonna be helping me with it, kind of A&R-ing, kind of executive producing,” Azalea said. “He called me up like, ‘Please?’ and I was like, ‘Definitely. You’re Tip; I love you — of course.’ So he’s gonna be helping me out, just reaching out to people and helping me find production and pointing me in the direction of things that I might like.”

This will be Azalea’s first time working with the Atlanta rapper and Grand Hustle Records CEO, and she’s certainly looking forward to it.

“Hopefully, that will be really dynamic and it’ll help speed things along.

“I’ll probably fly out to Atlanta and we’ll do it there because he’s weird with traveling and stuff. I understand. See we’re in touch with each other. I have legal issues; he has legal issues. I get it,” she said, joking about T.I.’s legal issues and her own immigration woes, which have prevented her from performing many U.S. shows until recently.

“In terms of writing the record, that’s not the part that really worries me; that’s easy,” she said. “It’s finding the production and finding something cohesive that’s right for the direction of the album. It could happen next week or I might go until the end of February and not find it. You just never know when you’re gonna have that magic.”

“If all goes to plan, my album will be out in June and I’ll have it recorded by the end of the month.”

Bottoms up. Drake celebrates the booty in the video for “Practice.” Inspired by Serena Williams’ viral clip, the visuals star a voluptuous vixen who dances in her bedroom mirror to his Juvenile-sampled song off Take Care. At the end, Drizzy surprises her and the cameras cut as they take it to the bed.

The Young Money rapper, who launches his “Club Paradise” tour on Valentine’s Day, is asking his fans to submit videos of themselves dancing to the song. We’re sure his inbox is already full.

Day26 returns to the scene in “Made Love Lately,” the first single from the group’s upcoming album A New Day. After splitting with Bad Boy (They remain on Atlantic), the “Making the Band 4″ stars—Robert, Brian, Willie, and Michael—storm the desert in the fantasy sequence, making love to a lady whose man doesn’t treat her right.

“It’s real R&B. It’s taking it back to that ’90s R&B. It’s heartfelt, it’s passion,” explained Brian of the Jim Beanz production.

The album will feature contributions from Troy Taylor, Bryan-Michael Cox, Rico Love, and songs written by Day26.

“The first one was hand picked, the second we had a little input, this one right here is really us,” said Willie.

Make way for M.I.A. The pop crusader storms Morocco in a BMW in the action-packed video for “Bad Girls,” the first single from her fourth album, due this summer. “Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well,” she chants on the Danja-produced banger. The gritty visuals, directed by Romain Gavras (“Born Free”), were shot in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

“It was dope to have so many people from so many different backgrounds speaking so many different languages come together to create something that we believed in,” said M.I.A. “I thought I was gonna die on the shoot when I saw the drifting. It was a four day shoot so everyone was on edge the whole time specifically ME when I had to do bluesteel singing to the camera while the cars did doughnuts on the wet road ten feet away. In my mind I was thinking how I was gonna deliver the video to Vice with no legs.”

Watch the dangerous results below.

With Super Bowl XLVI just days away, halftime show headliner Madonna returns to the front lines with the video for “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” the first single from her 12th album MDNA, due March 26. The pop queen assembles an all-star team of femme fatales for the cheerleading and football-themed visuals, directed by Megaforce.

Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. raise their pom poms as they flank the Material Girl in cheerleading outfits, and Young Money’s First Lady delivers her own feisty verse as her alter ago Roman Zolanski.

“I’m Roman, I’m a barbarian, I’m Conan,” she raps.

Madonna expressed her admiration for her co-stars.

“I love [Nicki and M.I.A.] and I wanted to collaborate with both of them on my record because I’m a big fan of their music, but also I like their independence,” she told Anderson Cooper. “They’re cheeky and unique and they have individual voices and they’re not conventional pop stars, and I really admire them both.”

The trio will perform the song live for the first time at Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show in Indianapolis.

André 3000 resurfaces in a commercial for Gillette’s Fusion ProGlide Styler. The OutKast recluse, who has kept a low profile in recent years, stars alongside actors Adrien Brody and Gael García Bernal in the national “Masters of Style” campaign. The rapper looks razor sharp in a variety of headwear including a bowler hat, beret, and Viking helmet.

“Style is taking what you have and what you were given and playing with it,” explains Three Stacks. “It’s something that you have that nobody else has and you kinda just have to love it and nurture it and say this is me and I’m just gon’ blast it out to the world.”

In the accompanying style piece, he talks about maintaining his facial hair and how he hasn’t been to the barber for a haircut in three years.

“I do my own grooming at home,” he shares.

2 Chainz reps for all regions on “Got One,” another cut off his mixtape T.R.U. REALigion. Fresh off his deal with Def Jam, the long-haired rapper performs at the Polo store and gets some support from his crew in the clip, which was shot on his home turf. Throw your ones up.